Holocaust survivor has lived the American dream

BREWSTER, N.Y. - Under an umbrella in the pouring rain, 87-year-old Rolf Fein walked slowly along the gravel roads of his 55-acre estate on a high hill overlooking a reservoir.

Thin and hunched over, white-haired and using a cane, Fein was eager to show his rocky, hilly, but scenic, property.
How he came to own the estate is a long story.
It is an immigrant's story, a tale of hard work and good fortune. The bottom line is that Fein lived the American dream after surviving the 20th century's worst nightmare.
A German Jew, he survived the Holocaust.
Last week, and then on Sunday, he told his story in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day, which is today. There was emotion in his voice as he displayed documents that prove him to be a survivor of the Buchenwald prison camp and a decorated soldier in the

.
There was emotion as he spoke about the need for world leaders to put an end to modern-day holocausts, such as the one in the Darfur region of Sudan. "Millions have perished," said Fein.
Perhaps 12 million people died in Europe at the hands of
Adolf Hitler
and Nazi Germany. Fein came close to being one of them.
In the 1930s,
Wilhelm "Willie" Fein
owned a factory in Leipzig, Germany that treated skins and furs and then shipped them to America. His son, Rolf Fein, worked for Fein and Co. for about three years as an apprentice.
On Nov. 11, 1938, Nazi secret police came to the family's home to arrest the father. But Wilhelm Fein was at a fur auction in England, where his brother ran a similar factory.
When the Nazis learned that Wilhelm wasn't home, they asked Rolf's mother, Antonia "Toni" Fein, if there were any other males in the house. "She could not say no," said Rolf Fein.
The police allowed Rolf, then 20, to pack one suitcase before they whisked him off to a train so crowded that Fein said it felt "like a cattle car."
When the prisoners got off the train, the soldiers hurried them along by hitting them. Rolf Fein protected himself by putting his suitcase over his head.
The men were then shoved together in a van and driven into the mountains, to camp Buchenwald in the town of Weimar. "We didn't know what to expect," said Fein.
The group stood for hours before being put into a barrack that held around 300 people. Beds were wooden platforms. Prisoners slept sideways so they could fit two men per bed. "Every inch counted," said Fein. "We slept back to back to keep warm."
During the day, Fein and the others stood in rows for eight to 10 hours. They could not move or they could be beaten or worse. Some men dug trenches for latrines. The sides of the ditch were slippery and the men had to be careful not to fall in. "Not very often did you want to go to the bathroom," Fein said.
Some prisoners had to feed meat to wild animals in cages. Fein said one animal looked like a lion. "It could have torn them to pieces," he said.
One thing Fein didn't see during his weeks at Buchenwald was any systemic slaughter.
As many as 56,000 people - Soviet prisoners of war, German political prisoners, homosexuals and Jehovah's witnesses, as well as Jews - died at Buchenwald between 1937 and 1945. The camp had no gas chambers, but prisoners were murdered by lethal injections, were shot or were worked or starved to death.
Most of those deaths would come later, after Fein had left.
There was no great escape. Fein had applied for a visa to come to America before his arrest. With the help of a relative in America, it was approved. For some reason, the Nazis allowed Fein to leave Buchenwald - though they first shaved his head to show others that he had been a prisoner.
"I came home crying with joy," Fein said of his release day.
His father had stayed in England, but his mother and sister were still at home. Before leaving for America, Fein stopped to visit his girlfriend, Claire, and promised to someday bring her to America.
Fein went to work at a family-owned fur and skin factory on 35th Street in New York City. But he came to love the more mythic image of America. "I liked America for the open spaces," said Fein. "I liked the cowboys. There was a feeling of freedom."
In May 1939, he got his mother and sister visas to come to America.
After Pearl Harbor, Fein was drafted into the U.S. Army. He felt good to be able to contribute to his new homeland. He did basic training with an artillery unit in Vermont.
But his officers realized that Fein could speak several languages. Because there was a need for interpreters, Fein was sent to a language school in upstate New York.
In February 1942, his girlfriend, Claire, came to America. When Fein went to pick her up in Miami, an immigration official asked if they were married. Fein said no, but then figured, "Why not?"
They couple paid $2.50 to a justice of the peace and tied the knot. A photographer snapped the couple's photo, and to their surprise they were on the front page of the next day's Miami Herald.
Claire lived with relatives in New York City while Fein resumed his Army duties. In December 1943, he was sent to Africa and worked for the British as an interpreter.
He was later transferred to an American division. In Italy, as an interpreter, he helped negotiate the surrender of 33,176 German troops. He received a Bronze Star for his work as an interpreter.
When he left the Army, Fein pulled together enough money to buy the Stonehaven Estate off Route 312 in Brewster. The estate was more than a home. Two of the five buildings on the property were used as factories.
For decades, the factory readied furs and fabrics and sent them to the hat factories in Danbury. Eventually, the hatting industry died out. In 1987, Fein and his relatives sold W. Fein & Sons to an Austrian company. To this day, there are a few furs and machines in the now quiet former factories.
Fein has experienced success in America, but also sadness.
On a stormy February day in 1960 his son, 9-year-old Kenneth, was playing in the yard when a tree fell on him. "He died in my arms," said Rolf Fein. In 2000, his wife, who had been sick for many years, died.
Still, the gentleman - who will be 88 on Saturday - knows that he is one of the fortunate ones. He is a Holocaust survivor.
In April 1995, during the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Buchenwald, Fein and about 100 other former prisoners attended a ceremony in Weimar.
Each former prisoner was given an orange identification tag card with their name on it. Fein keeps the card in his wallet.
The former prisoners toured the camp.
"It was quite emotional," Fein said of his visit. The former prisoners saw a slide show of the awful things that the Nazis did at the camp. "The people being were being taken into crematorium, as if on a conveyor built."
Fein knows that his life could have ended much differently - and sooner - .if not for that lucky visa. "America," he said, "saved my life."